Raiffeisen-Campus Dernbach

Finalist for the region South-West

Richappy!

Make yourself Richappy! / A hybrid-game as solution of the lack in financial literacy throughout young generations

“Every seventh young adult in Germany is considered over-indebted.”1 We want to face this problem and focus on the main reason for this: Young people’s interest in financial matters is very low. A game is a good solution to tackle this situation. But the challenge is to design a game that is easy, realistic, exciting for young people and instructive in financial questions. Our solution is the modern hybrid-game “Richappy”.

The game’s concept: Realistic decisions & financial support
All players play against the game itself, which will try to drive you into financial ruin. You have to fight back whilst pursuing your self-set goals for the Richappy-Index! Common good and sustainability, status and power or relationships and recognition are all important aspects in the success. The time runs permanently and is measured in years. Each scenario starts with all players at the age of 17. It always ends at the age of 67, where you will retire.
At the beginning of each year your expenses must be paid and you receive a salary depending on your job situation. Every year there will be different decisions to be made and challenges to respond to. Collect items like insurance policies, contracts and other documents to be prepared for upcoming decisions. You can contact each of your „support offers” (befriended tax advisor, your parents, consumer protection) exactly once. They will give you a tip on how to behave in your current situation. In the technical glossary you can familiarize yourself with different terms of the financial world. The winner will be whoever has the highest Richappy-Value in their index!

The Gameplay: Easy & interactive
Each player starts with their figure on the starting field. You move across the board with a dice and – depending on what field you land – can launch various kinds of events or chances. In some cases, this would be scanning a QR-code with our Android and iOS app to see what happens.
Decision fields – Here you get the opportunity to make a financial decision that can benefit you as the game progresses. (Examples: take out insurance, change job, get a new apartment,…).
Opportunity fields – The decision fields affect your „goal-index“. To take advantage of the opportunities offered here, you usually need a financial base.
Fate fields – Both in Real life and in our game, unexpected financial events can occur. Be well prepared for the weight this will put on you, but note that sometimes, fate does you good.
Global events – When one player steps on this field, all players are affected by the occurring events (in different ways). It depends strongly on the personal life situation (occupation, income, dwelling,…), how the events affect you. (Examples: pandemic, stock market crashes,…).
The RichAPPy automatically counts players‘ moves, fortune and net-worth, age and mental points. After a set number of moves, the app asks each player to make certain key decisions. Think wisely and get richappy!

Their YES! topic

Young people are not interested in finance related topics. How could this be changed?

by Eveline Wuttke, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE

Some of you may remember a tweet and the following discussion on the internet: Naina (@nainablabla) said in 2015 that she had no idea about taxes, rent or insurance, but that she could write poetry analysis – in four languages.

This tweet can be seen as a complaint about a ‚wrong‘ focus in education, and it suggests that Naina might even be interested in financial economics, but no one ever taught her about it. But, at the same time, research shows that many (young) people are not interested in these topics and are not good at handling finance-related matters. In the worst case, this leads to indebtedness or even over-indebtedness.

Most people agree that financial literacy is essential. For everyone. But it is especially important for young people when they start an independent life: Earning their own money, studying or starting an apprenticeship, having to pay rent, thinking about health insurance, etc. Therefore, young people should be interested and learn. And research shows that it is easier to learn when you are interested in a subject.

Now the interesting questions are:

(1) What is financial literacy, and why is it important?

(2) Are young people interested in financial literacy topics or not – as the headline suggests?

(3) If they are not interested – how could this be changed?